George was poised with his wand, ready for their victim. Fred had helped him set up a wide corridor with a few surprises and he was primed to lead the first Death Eater he could toward it and warn any allies off of it. Angelina was only a few paces away to his right. “Ang, you see-” He stopped, as he spotted a grey head of hair making his way toward their position. “Two o’clock, Ang!” he called over to his co-conspirator, squinting before his eyes went wide. “Is that… Nott Senior?”
“What?” Angelina looked and sure enough, there was Hugo Nott. She shot a disarming charm at him and called out, “Hiya, Colonel Sanders!”
Hugo made an indignant noise at the strange name, knowing there was little doubt as to who it could be. Annoying girl who seemed to think he had some kind of military expertise. He was able to snatch his wand back, and pointed it at her. “Miss Johnson, I need to surrender!” Hugo called out as he sent a blasting curse her way.
But George was ready and he threw up a shield to knock the blast away into the stone wall beside them. “Ha! You hear that, Ang? The old coot’s finally come to his senses!” he teased, casting his own blasting curse in return but more to aggravate than injure as he began to step backward down the hall. Not far and they could lead the Death Eater right into the illusory corridor behind them.
“Finally, George!” Angelina said with a laugh, taking her own backward steps down the corridor. She stepped away from George, though, to divide the Death Eater’s target, but also to avoid the first trap the twins had laid. She threw arresting chains at Hugo and added skeptically, “And you know, nothing says ‘I surrender’ like throwing magic at someone.”
Hugo followed them without a second thought, a lazy blasting curse aimed at the chains as he started to pursue them. His legs felt heavy but he supposed that these children would be easy to kill. Hugo stepped forwards, raising his wand again. “Nothing says ‘peaceful vigilante’ like throwing magic at someone!” Hugo imitated her cruelly, putting on a high-pitched voice.
George was barely listening now, jumping from one illusory brick to another, counting in his head until he got to one that he knew would be safe and shot off a firework in the man’s direction to keep up the appearance of trying. “Sorry, we gave up on peaceful when you decided to attack A SCHOOL!” he shouted back. Then George pressed himself against the wall as if he’d been cornered, but instead gripped his wand tightly, keeping his balance, and waiting. Ang was doing great, all they needed was a couple more steps….
“Yeah, and I never claimed to be peaceful,” Angelina said with a shrug. She shot George a quick glance, taking a careful, searching step backwards. Satisfied that she wasn’t stepping into the trap, she aimed an Impedimenta at the old man. “Also, for the record, I super don’t sound like that!”
“For the record—” Hugo started to parrot her words in that high-pitched tone again, but was cut off by the impediment jinx hitting him. He slowed, stumbled in slow-motion, and as his foot fell back to the ground it felt different somehow. There was water, and something hanging from the ceiling was hitting him in the face. As the jinx eased he fell face-first into the swamp water.
With the ripple sent through the water, the portable swamp revealed itself through the hallway, hanging vines and trees folding out from the walls, the entire thing an obstacle to anyone trying to get further into the school this by this route. “HA!” George let out a harsh laugh before snapping his wand toward the foliage, the vine that the Death Eater had run into slithered from its perch and shot out to wrap itself around one of the man’s arms, another snaking around his leg. “Grabbing him!”
Angelina laughed — that’s what he got for trying to mock her — and pointed her wand at another vine, urging it to wrap around Hugo’s other arm. “I’m definitely making out with Fred for this one after all this is over,” she told George, whether he wanted to hear it or not.
“You stupid children!” Hugo screeched, his grip on his wand loosening as the vines grabbed him and struck at his face. “Get this thing off me!” He let out a howl of pain as one of the vines curled around his leg. “Get rid of it now!”
“Oh well, Merlin, now that you’ve asked so nicely!” George chided with a grin that twisted slightly as his more jovial expression turned harsh. “Because that’s always what the Death Eaters do, right? Give us what we want?” Taking advantage of the man being fairly restrained, George sent a Conjunctivitis curse his way as the vines continued to constrict around limbs.
“Say you’re sorry for calling us stupid children and we’ll think about letting you go,” Angelina offered, fighting to keep her tone light and unbothered. She took advantage of the restraints by aiming a tickling charm at Hugo.
Apologies weren't Hugo Nott’s way, and he sneered at the girl as the boy’s curse hit his eyes. He yelled out, but the tickling charm got him first and turned it into a painful, guttural kind of laugh. With his wand now almost entirely out of his hands he lunged out to grab it back, snapping “Incendio!” as soon as he felt he had enough of a hold on it.
His brain only had time to briefly think ’Not again…’ before George was forced to leap to the side, sneakers sinking into the mud and water with a splash as the tree beside him caught flame with a jolt. He held his arm up against the heat, slapping the sleeve of his sweater that had started to catch. “This is why no one LIKES YOU,” he shouted, wand pointing at the vine around the Death Eater’s leg and encouraging it to squeeze.
From the other side of the swamp, the tip of Angelina’s wand wavered between Hugo and George and she ultimately decided to shoot an Aguamenti at George’s singed sleeve. She moved to the tree next, but the fire had started to catch on the swamp’s other flora so she tried to catch George’s eye, gesturing at Hugo and then the swamp, miming scissors with her fingers when she didn’t think the old man was looking.
“Stupid boy!” Hugo called out, kicking out at the vine that was grabbing him but failing to loosen its grip. “Come and fight me properly!” The fire he'd cast himself was close, and he could feel the heat already. He coughed and lashed out wildly, but still couldn't get free.
“I think you’ve fought properly enough for a few lifetimes, don’t you?” George snarked back with a bit of a grin as he caught Angelina’s eye. With a nod, he sloshed a few steps backward to give himself space from the growing flames, the memory of the shop explosion too fresh to be comfortable near them for long. “But here, how about I-” and before he finished his sentence, he’d sent a slicing charm through the vines to drop the man into the mud below - “lend you a hand.” With another glance at Angelina he backed up more, the magically conjured fire ignoring the damp environment around them and still managing to spread.
“Maybe you should go into evil retirement or something,” Angelina called out, backing away as well, her eyes on Hugo.
“I'm already —” Hugo’s childish retort was smothered by the realisation that falling onto the mud had meant that he was closer to the fire. Too close, as the edge of his robes started to burn.
Seeing the way the swamp was succumbing to flame, George pulled his feet back through the mud some more. “Maybe we should leave him,” he suggested, arm lifted in question, transfiguring the vines to start to form a net between the downed Death Eater and them so he couldn’t pursue. “Seems like he’s got enough to deal with?” Truly, George just hated the idea of being anywhere near more flames, the shiny scar along the side of his face from the shop explosion still too fresh.
Angelina, meanwhile, urged the flames towards Hugo with her wand, taking squelching steps back from the swamp and towards the mouth of the corridor. “Yeah, all right,” she said distractedly before turning to George. Her eyebrows briefly furrowed in concern and she waved a hand in the opposite direction, flashing him a smile like she didn’t notice how nervous he looked. “Come on. Let’s go get another one!”
As the two of them disappeared from view, obscured by the vines, Hugo yelled out one more time. He scrambled for his wand, knowing that he could take care of the fire once he had it but he didn’t manage to put it out before the fire had swept up his robes and across his arm.
In the meantime, George gave Angelina his best grin, even if it was a bit forced. “Right behind you!” he called, slopping up out of the water and fell into step nearby. Being unable to resist, he turned and gave the smoke-filled and swamp-filled corridor a one-fingered salute with his still-good arm. “Thanks for the surrender, wanker!” Then they rounded the corner and were gone, off to spring their next trap.
Katie Bell & Lee Jordan v. Thorfinn Rowle
She hadn’t intended to stray so far away from Aberforth, but somehow in the confusion Katie had ended up outside. More terrifyingly, she was somehow in the path of giants. Spells were useless against them, she’d realised quickly, and she’d guessed that her best method was to flee back towards the castle. At least she had speed on her side.
Spotting one of her friends, Katie yelled out his name. “LEE!” She waved an arm frantically, hoping that she’d only get his attention rather than anything or anyone else.
Thankful that he had heard his name from a familiar sounding voice, Lee looked up and sighed at relief upon seeing Katie. "Hey," he greeted her quickly, his wand ready at his side. "They brought fucking giants!" he exclaimed, as though Katie had somehow failed to realise this very important fact.
And as if on cue, the giant closest to them let out a howl, and kicked at a flying piece of debris. "Katie, duck!" he shouted over the chaos, and immediately positioned himself in an army-crawl position, trying to get to her as quickly as he could. "You okay?" he asked, as he reached her.
Katie ducked down just as something went flying over her head. “Lee!” She sounded panicked, grabbing his arm to pull him closer. “What the fuck — are you okay too? I'm okay.” She could feel the ground shake as the giant moved, and she was certain that it wasn't just her legs threatening to give out beneath her. “We need to get back towards the castle,” she told him.
"I'm okay!" Lee shouted, making sure he could be heard over all the noise. "Yeah, we do, we have to get away from all of —"
He was hit by something, and suddenly Lee couldn't feel much of anything on his right leg. "Shit, shit, shit," he muttered to himself as he tried to push himself up and stand. If they were going to get back to the castle, they needed to stand and run.
And yet as Lee tried, he found himself being extremely close to a Death Eater. "Ah, fu —"
The curse hadn't struck where Thor had hoped, but it would have to do in the chaos. Anything that slowed the Order and the people fighting against them was acceptable right now. Frowning beneath his mask, he sent a few blasting curses in the direction of the young pair before promptly being hit in the head by a stray piece of stone thanks to the giant.
“You’re supposed to be going after me, not them!” Thor shouted at the creature.
Katie had been trying to keep an eye on both Lee and the giant and the Death Eater, and having only a pair of eyes made that fairly difficult. “Hold onto my arm,” she instructed Lee, offering to shoulder some of his weight before the blasting curse caught her off-guard and she screamed.
But Lee lost his grip on Katie just then as well, as he too was caught off-guard by the blasting curse. He attempted to duck, but ended up slumping over, before he threw a series of stinging hexes at the Death Eater. "Fuck off!" he eloquently shouted at the masked being, hissing both in pain and annoyance.
“Oh, come on!” Thor shouted a split-second before the stinging hexes hit him. He yelped in pain, but thankfully the little twerps didn’t seem to know anything that would actually be useful in a fight. With his arm still stinging, he sent a couple slashing curses towards the pair as more debris from the giant’s destruction rained down on them.
Katie’s shield charm was sloppy, partly covering both herself and Lee but still leaving her other arm exposed. She yelled out as the slashing curse hit her hand, body recoiling as she instinctively sent a blasting curse his way. “C’mon Lee!” Katie snapped through gritted teeth, clutching the injured hand close to her body. “The stupid giant is going to come back around here and squash us in a minute.”
Lee clenched his jaw, trying not to think too much on the injured leg and stood up, reaching for Katie. "I'm coming, I'm coming!" he yelled back, just in time for the giant to roar. Lee's head snapped up to see what the giant was up to this time, as more debris flew their way. "Fuck."
Quickly, Lee threw a Conjunctivitis Curse at the Death Eater, hoping it would blind him as intended.
Thanks to the blasting curse distracting him, Lee’s curse hit him square in the stomach. Thor stumbled back as intense pain began to radiate from his eyes. Though he could hear the chaos moving all around him, he couldn’t see shit. Not wanting to let someone else gain the upper hand, the Death Eater began sending a barrage of blasting and slashing curses in the hopes something would hit. It did, though it was part of a wall and a large hunk of stone slammed into the side of Thor’s head, dropping him to the ground.
Katie threw up a shield charm just in time, edging towards Lee and finally grabbing him again to help him walk. “Back to the castle, now,” she urged him, starting to move in that direction. “Ugh, you’re heavier than you look, you know?” Katie couldn’t resist complaining.
"Don't body shame me while we're dueling a Death Eater, Katie!" Lee whined back, but he shifted his weight enough so that he wouldn't be a burden to his friend. "But right, let's go!" he exclaimed, hobbling over to the castle.
Nymphadora Lupin v. Victoria Mulciber
Voldemort nearly had what he wanted, but Vic couldn’t feel less enthused. Stalking the halls of Hogwarts, stray spells rebounding into the well known walls (by children) Vic could think of a thousand places she’d rather be.
Rose’s manic fervour, her mother’s attempts at parting encouragement — like she gave a shit.
“Oh good,” she stopped shortly, wand raised. “You’re the werewolf’s girlfriend aren’t you? Defodio!”
Tonks’ eyes narrowed, fighting off an instinctive eye roll through sheer discipline; she was trained to dismiss all nature of Death Eater vulgarities and remain cool and indifferent, eyes on the prize, and indeed she kept hers fixed steadily on Victoria, sparing not even a half-second to scoff. Whereas Victoria was lukewarm, Tonks was single-mindedly determined to throw all of her years of training and fighting the dark arts at any mask who crossed her path.
Flicking the Death Eater’s curse away with a shield spell, the moment Tonks’ protego began to dissipate from her wand, she readied it with a swift “Expulso” aimed initially at Victoria’s chest, then redirected it at her legs at the last moment--a surprise, Tonks hoped.
It was. Vic’s lack of focus had her primed to bat the spell away at her torso and when the spell suddenly slammed into the ground at her feet, Vic was unprepared.
Stone exploded, the curse threw Vic back, but rubble pinned her there, wrenching her right leg to a near breaking point and forcing out a cry of pain as she fell.
“Fuc— Confringo,” she snarled, and followed it up with snapping ropes of electricity.
Tonks deflected the first spell with a shield; her wand not quite ready for the second, she dodged, clumsily instead, one of the ropes grazing her cheek--Tonks hissed, landing hard on her knees.
Focus intact, though, and level now with her opponent, Tonks raised her wand once more.
“Diffindo!” she uttered, aiming in the general direction of Victoria's heap.
There was something very wrong with her leg, maybe a dislocation, but Vic managed to adjust herself, prepared for the other woman’s counter attack.
A large chunk of rubble flew up, bearing the impact of the curse and severing into pieces. With a wave of her wand the pieces shot forward, rocketing towards the vigilante. “Ossisquasso!”
Managing to block most of the onslaught with a shield, Tonks gritted her teeth as stray shards of rubble cut and pummeled her exposed limbs, but she stayed on her feet. Surveying Victoria’s weakened state as the dust cleared, Tonks knew she could continue to pummel the Death Eater herself or neutralize her.
A virulent disgust over the fact that they had taken this war to Hogwarts to fight children had her leaning, momentarily, to the former option.
And yet, when Tonks raised her wand again, it was to disarm the other woman.
Vic blocked the attempt with her shield and raised an eyebrow. “Disarm me? You really are a pack of do-gooders.”
Tonks raised a shoulder, wand still trained as ever on Victoria, “We can't all be murderers,” she said--though Tonks was loathe to leave a Death Eater cognizant among Hogwarts students, however injured she might be. The disarming spell blocked, Tonks turned to another murder resistant strategy.
“Stupefy!” Then, for good measure, “Incarcerous!”
Tonks took a step forward to examine her spellwork and possibly levitate Victoria to somewhere where she'd be less of a threat when she froze in place; chill ran down Tonks’ spine at the sound of Voldemort’s voice filled the air.
He called for surrender and retreat, time to tend to the dead and injured, and for Harry to give himself up.
Tonks remained frozen and stunned for a moment after the voice had faded, and as the adrenalin of duelling faded too, her focus broke at the sinking realization that she didn't know whether Remus was among the dead or the injured.
With one last weary glance at Victoria on the floor, she determined that the Death Eater would surely not disobey her master's order to retreat. Tonks refused to turn her back and kept her wand trained steadily on the Death Eater until she was a good distance away; then she ran to find her husband and their friends.
Grace Jordan & Oliver Wood v. Gerald Avery
A troll, whose humanoid face screwed into a moue of confusion, threw its club over its shoulder and looked down at Gerald who (with an exaggerated gesture) motioned to the sky. “There are people in the air. Make them fall down!” That seemed to work. With a happy swing, the troll began to bat at those in his direct airspace, particularly two individuals who thought to take to brooms.
Because of course the Wandless liberators would also be Quidditch fanatics. Or professional players? He had no time to consider the who or the what of what he was duelling beyond the knowledge that these sought to upend the law and order the Dark Lord sought to establish.
So he flourished his wand at them and uttered a spell which would send twinned jets of flame to both.
Grace split from Oliver, diving to avoid the joyful swings of an imperiused troll. It made her itch for her own bat, but she’d long learned her lesson where weapons and duels were concerned. Cai would be proud.
“Confrigo” she shouted from behind her shield charm, flames dissipating as they slammed into the barrier.
Oliver ducked as a line of fire shot over him, singing his hair. He squinted, eyeing the troll first and then seeking out the source of the magic. The Death Eater was the real problem - not that the troll wasn’t one, but he had faith that he and Grace could dodge the troll’s bat. It was the Death Eater he worried about.
Alongside Grace’s spell, Oliver cast a surgo at the ground, aiming to destabilise both of their attackers as the ground lifted.
Oliver’s spell hit its mark and the troll flailed wildly before lumbering to its knees, barely missing Gerald. He too stumbled, and found himself smarting after he fell back on his arse. But his reflexes, still quick, dictated that he follow up with a volley of his own. He flourished his wand and, tired of playing, cast the Cruciatus curse into the air from the ground.
He rose awkwardly and cast the spell again.
Grace deflected the first curse, instinct alone urging the beater to put herself between it and the keeper. A wild and sudden swing from the troll clipped the end of her broom and Grace nearly pitched sideways, a mistake that had the second curse catching her right in the chest.
Grace screamed in agony, tumbling the short distance from the broom and into the ground.
The sound of his friend’s pain cut right through him, and Oliver saw red at the corner of his vision. “Diffindo!” he shouted, aiming at the Death Eater. He swerved around the troll to get closer to the Death Eater. “Depulso!!”
Though the giant leaned into Oliver’s way to intercept the spells, Gerald was yet caught with the edge of the first and experienced a neat, stinging little cut along his forehead. It, however, managed to pour the blood. And as he found himself briefly blinded by it, he attempted to scatter his last remaining foe (until another came along) with a wildly placed jet of flame.
Oliver yelped as the flames licked his left arm when he tried to swerve away from it, and he immediately felt his skin burn. It was going to start getting difficult to fly if he didn’t take care of that soon, he thought.
From just a few feet away, Grace managed to slowly, painfully push herself up, the pull in her arm confirming that she’d dislocated her shoulder on impact. Trying to focus amidst the ringing in her ear she watched as the Death Eater stumbled about.
With a flick of her wrist she took advantage of the Death Eaters distraction and shot a leg locking curse his way. “Confundo!” she added, firing two spells at both the troll and Gerald.
While Grace attacked the Death Eater, Oliver flew to land beside her. “Do we need to get out of here?” he asked.
While Grace’s Confundus charm landed neatly, it also gave Gerald the time necessary to wipe the blood from his eyes (if instinctually) and while the effects began to wear off, he was able to stagger to his feet and point a clearly unsteady and wavering wand at the two heroes.
He’d had enough. Though it was unlikely to work, given his lack of aim or concentration, he figured he had to try. Gathering what concentration he could, he cast a wavering arm at Grace and Oliver.
“Avada Kedavra!”
The shot went wide, but Grace shoved both she and Oliver into a clumsy side roll, unwilling to take any chances with any flashes of green light. Her entire arm protested, stiff and locking up.
“Shit, sorry. Let’s go,” she nodded, she was barely able to lift her wand in this condition.
The troll, who had also been hit by a Confundus charm seemed confused in spite of the direction from the Death Eater controlling him. He stumbled between them and Gerald, swinging dumbly at everything and nothing at all. Including Gerald.
Grace grabbed her broom. “Think that’s our cue.”
Though his heart still felt like it was in his throat, Oliver nodded and hoisted his leg over his broom. It didn’t feel quite right to leave the Death Eater only in the company of a confused troll, but he wasn’t going to take too many unnecessary chances. “Let’s get checked out and then we’ll come back,” he told Grace, and then they were off.
Hannah Abbott & Ernie Macmillan v. Thea Travers
"Expelliarmius!"
Ernie had been trying to wait patiently, to consider his actions before he did anything, but the moment he saw the Death Eaters, any such plans flew out of his head. He charged straight towards them, wand out and determined. He'd had quite enough of Death Eaters at Hogwarts, thank you very much.
The particular Death Eater he charged at scrambled to snatch her wand as the disarming spell caught her by surprise. It was that annoying, pompous pureblood Hufflepuff Thea recognised as being a couple of years younger that her.
He’d grown, she noted. Shot up a few inches since she’d last laid eyes on him. Which reminded her of how small he must of once been, how she must have towered over him when he was a first year — and suddenly any desire to curse the boy dissolved.
“Rictumsempra!” she shot back uselessly, only wanting to keep him from getting hurt now.
Ernie struggled to bite back a giggle and a squirm, instead squaring his shoulders to continue the fight.
“We’ve had quite enough of you Death Eaters around here!” He pronounced. “Stupefy!”
Hannah had been a few paces behind Ernie, holding her breath as her friend took on the Death Eater. Fear froze her for a moment, then confusion took hold when the Death Eater used the tickling charm. Surely one of them would go for something… worse?
She shook her head to clear it and stepped out to join Ernie after his stupefy. “Tarantallegra!” she called, embarrassed that she’d chosen that spell. It was just the first thing she could think of.
Thea easily stepped out of the way of that spell, she'd trained her way through much worse, after all. "Crucio," she whispered reluctantly. She knew that was what she was supposed to do, hurt them for defying the Dark Lord and His plans. But she couldn't bring herself to mean it.
Ernie thought he knew what to expect and braced himself for —nothing? That didn’t seem right. He glanced at Hannah to ensure she was okay, maybe it had been aimed at her. But she seemed fine (maybe a little scared, but fine), so he turned his focus back onto the apparently not-so-great Death Eater after shrugging briefly to Hannah. This was weird, right?
“Petrificus Totalus!”
Despite herself, Hannah had cried out when she heard the Cruciatus Curse invoked, distraught at the thought of feeling that oh so familiar torture once more, but she felt nothing. Apparently, Ernie hadn’t either. She slowed her breathing to keep from hyperventilating and added a Banishing Charm, hoping to send the Death Eater far away from them.
Though the body-bind missed her, the banishing charm didn’t. Thea went flying backwards, mask ripped off. She slumped against the stonewall, hearing a crack somewhere in her body, pain shot through her right side. Was it a rib? How fucking wonderful.
With no time to waste, she fired off a flipendo at both the kids, trying to stall them enough to get away from their enthusiastic defence. She didn’t want to hurt them. She couldn’t hurt them.
Where the fuck were the adults?
Sturgis Podmore v. Dante Avery
Peeking out from behind on of the large wooden barrels, Sturgis was just in time to see the Death Eater disappear behind a large cupboard. He glanced around trying to find something that could serve as a proper weapon, but it was a bit hard. Most of the kitchen utensils would work well with a hidden opponent, so he had to improvise. With a flick of his wand, several jars of fruit preserves went flying across the kitchen and once they were above where he had last seen the Death Eater, they exploded.
He wouldn’t have come to the kitchen if it hadn’t been Sturgis. The name was spat out in his mind like it was dirty, and in a way, Dante felt like it was. Podmore’s wife had been a pain in his arse, and so was Sturgis himself.
Dante heard the jars shatter before he saw them, and felt the preserves drip down his hair and the back of his neck. A piece of glass cut his arm, and he was sticky. “Ugh.” He didn’t know exactly where his opponent was, but he could guess based on the direction of the light from that spell, so he sent a response towards the wooden barrels, setting them alight.
“Fuck!”
He jumped up and back as his cover suddenly burst into the flames along with part of his shirt. Yelping as the fire quickly burned through the material and made contact with his skin, Sturgis was distracted for a moment as water poured from the tip of his wand to stop the flames.
A smirk crossed Dante’s face slowly as he looked over from his own hiding spot. With another flash of his wand, he blew what remained of the barrels up, sending a combination of sparks, water, and broken pieces of wood through the air. In the chaos, he stepped forward to face Sturgis properly.
“I can keep going,” Dante warned.
“Oh, there you are!” Sturgis said with mock relief as the shards of wood rained down on him. “I was hoping you would just continue to be a fucking coward, but this is fine.”
He’d heard so many variation on that for so long that he felt numb to it now -- or maybe he’d finally gotten better at ignoring it. A red light shot from Dante’s wand as he shouted, “crucio!”
The red light hit him square in the stomach and as the pain engulfed his body, Sturgis fell backwards. Sadly, the pain from the Unforgivable wasn’t foreign to him, but the familiarity of the curse did enough for him that he managed to muster enough strength to roll out of its path and behind a stove. Wasting no time, a butcher knife levitated in the air and made a beeline for the Death Eater.
The knife embedded itself in Dante’s abdomen, just below his rib. He wailed in pain and surprise, and his hand lifted as though he intended to pull it out. Then he remembered that might cause more bleeding, so he gritted his teeth. Podmore was going to pay.
“Diffindo!”
The charm cut through his robes and went down to the bone of his shoulder. A bit stunned, Sturgis took a step backward and the heel of his foot hit a glass jar of peach preserves. Instantly, he tumbled backwards into a few bushels of apple. He knew he had to get back on his feet, but it was proving hard as his body began to sink further into the bushels, leaving him a prime target for the Death Eater.
That was when a cast iron pan flew over his head toward the masked man.
It was followed by a spatula.
And then a stock pot.
“Death Eaters do not belong here!” A house elf yelled from atop a rangehood.
The pan hit Dante square in the face, the sound reverberating in his skull. “What the f --” He ducked, and then looked up, following the voice. The house elves? Were attacking him?
Dante growled in frustration and tried to stun one of them, but it disapparated before his spell hit, only to throw a bottle at him from behind. Two ran at him, each brandishing enormous knives. Soon, there was practically a swarm, all of them shouting at him to leave.
As he turned towards the door, one of the elves sliced the back of his leg, and then he ran.
From the doorway, one of the elves waved a knife at Dante as he retreated. “And don’t come back!”